Tuesday, April 8, 2014

DNF Explanation: Killer Frost by Jennifer Estep

This
is a review for the final book in a series. DO NOT read this review if
you haven't read the series

Haven't read the series yet? Check out my review for the first book Touch of Frost.

What is it with me and series enders this year?

Mythos Academy is yet another series I've been following for years, another series I've enjoyed overall, and, devastatingly, another series I'm DNF-ing on the final installment.

Full disclosure? I knew the Mythos Academy series wasn't the strongest out there. The plots have always been on the weaker side (and steadily getting weaker), narrator Gwen tends to get really (really, really) repetitive, and ever since book three, Mythos Academy has had a serious case of series stretching.

But that's ok. Why? Because I'm a character girl.

Gwen was dorky and shy, Daphne was brash and totally unexpected, Vic is a bloodthirsty talking sword! Plus, all the other characters, creatures, and mythological little details MORE than made up for the series' weaknesses.

Except, bit by bit, book by book, the things I loved about the series were slowly whittled away. Daphne had less page time, Carson practically disappeared. Instead, I got to spend time with new characters, and I don't like them (I loathe Gwen's cousin. She is the Mallory of this Babysitters' Club. The flat-footed Skipper to Daphne's pink sparkly Barbie).

Worst of all is Gwen. I LOVED Gwen. BFF charms, sleepover party invites, a permanent seat at my lunch table. I was that serious.

But no more. Gwen went from an awkward wallflower who I could totally bond with to The Chosen One, complete with sulky "no one gets it like I do!" specialness and Mary Sue Amazingness.

Which would be fine, I guess, if Gwen were actually smarter than everyone. But she's not. She spent almost all of the 188 pages I read lone-wolfing it on the dumbest kick EVER (honey, there were, like, FIFTY other options to your problem! ALL of them better than your half-baked plan!) all while grumbling about how everyone else was wrong *foot stomp*

I just cannot abide that sort of thing.

Bottom line

It was nice while it lasted and I'm happy for the time I did spend with these people in this world. I think I'll just mentally pretend books 5-6 never happened.

Don't you hate it when that happens? Btw, a really interesting post on fantasy/sci fi series by Jo Walton: http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/01/what-makes-this-book-so-great-so-what-sort-of-series-do-you-like

She talks about adult series; I think YA series mostly fall into the "one book with extra pieces of cardboard," or the "volume closure but need to read the books in order." Which one was Mythos?

I'd say Mythos is a little bit of both of those first two categories. Each story has its on arc, so there's more closure in each book than, say, in the books of Lord of the Rings. But there is most definitely an overarching plot and you must read the books in order (though, with Gwen's propensity for rehashing events, maybe you could get away with skipping around!)

It's kind of like the Harry Potter series, where there's a conclusion to each book arc, but the books together make up one large story.

It really sucks when an author starts out strong and then can't hack it for the whole series. I think--not having read the last couple of books in the series--that Estep overreached. The Mythos Academy books should have had a shorter arc.

YES! Definitely an overreach. I think it would have been a ton better if it had been kept to a trilogy. All of those events stuffed into three books would have been super action-packed and with none of the stretching that became awkward and overdone.